obama is taking my $

Parking Lot

Yeah, that's the thing. We don't spend that much, in fact very little, in relative terms, on foreign aid. It's just that given the current economic crisis and the mood of the country, the notion that we're sending money anywhere (other than our own back yard) just rubs people the wrong way, and understandably so.

Totally, and besides we give a ton in the form of private donations. In fact i think when the private side is added in we're pretty similar (per capita wise) to the most "generous" countries like Sweden, Norway etc.

... my guess is the private side does a better job most of the time too. I think Worldvision is fantastic.

Thank you for this. The author of this thread, most likely in ignorance, wrote a title suggesting this issue to be something that is not. The following discussion has been predictably inane. So thanks for setting the record straight.

Anyway 12th, I have to tell you, I really think this age of political divisiveness is coming to an end. You know the playbook, the one where you find divisive, largely symbolic issues to exploit – which have little to do with people’s actual lives – and use them to get the folks all fired up. It's that FOX News thing where you find some radical 60's professor or woman in a coma and have the spewing pundits wax vitriolic until everyone is worked up into a tizzy and foaming at the mouth.

When the economy was fundamentally sound and the nation was at peace perhaps we had the luxury of engaging in such nonsense. But at this stage in the game, I just don’t think it’s going to work anymore. People have too much on their mind (my conservative friends at The Warpath not withstanding of course, some of whom seem genuinely uninterested in letting an opportunity for outrage go to waste).

Faux outrage is here even with the current economic downturn and will always be here. Man is an animal, leading people to abandon objective moral standards involuntarily. This tragic flaw of man.

I think we're completely misunderstanding what's happening here. President Obama isn't funding abortion at all. I don't know how much clearer it can get than that. .

Coming just one day after the 36th anniversary of the tragic Roe v. Wade decision, this presidential directive forces taxpayers to subsidize abortions overseas _ something no American should be required by government to do," said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio

this quote came directly from the article.

__________________ Hail to Allen/Shanahan .... bring in some baby hogs and load up on diesel fuel !!! (budw38)

Coming just one day after the 36th anniversary of the tragic Roe v. Wade decision, this presidential directive forces taxpayers to subsidize abortions overseas _ something no American should be required by government to do," said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio

But this not a new expenditure. Obama’s executive order merely expands the ways in which already allocated tax money can be spent. Therefore he is not taking any more of Wolf's money than Bush was. The thread title is inaccurate.

But again, we now have infighting over a very divisive issue. Why did this have to be done NOW, couldn't we focus first on the issues that can build a consensus, or work toward improving our country? And before you say there is time etc etc, consider for a minute if this was a republican president who came in and the first thing he/she did was to impose a ban on funding of international organizations who promote abortion. would you still be saying give the new president time? Lets not start with the divisive, lets work to get the economy and country working.

But again, we now have infighting over a very divisive issue. Why did this have to be done NOW, couldn't we focus first on the issues that can build a consensus, or work toward improving our country? And before you say there is time etc etc, consider for a minute if this was a republican president who came in and the first thing he/she did was to impose a ban on funding of international organizations who promote abortion. would you still be saying give the new president time? Lets not start with the divisive, lets work to get the economy and country working.

Yep, and i know how every pro-abortion group reacted. Again, if he wants it to be same old c*** then so be it, but that's not what he said. so now we are back to the old petty arguments instead of trying to build a better country based on what unites us. instead of emphasizing that which we all agree and work toward he has again chosen a road of one sided political pandering. I thought and hoped he was better than that.

it's interesting that you pulled the line out, that we all knew had happened, as opposed to answering the question that followed, or responding to the general point that this was an action which, while he has the right to do it, could have waited until after his first five days.

Sorry but you have tho wrong clause because the Hyde/Weldon Clause was just past in 2005 and so how could Obama apeal the same clause as Clinton and Carter if it was just passed. Pleas try again.

I never said that Obama repealed Hyde-Weldon, but the "Global Gag Rule." Yes, Hyde came afterwards, but it's in there to serve more than one purpose. And I can assure you, the funds aren't supposed to fund abortion but rather offer counseling services and allow women to know the options available, among other things health related.

Like, we give them 10 bucks - and that 10 bucks can't go to the doctor performing the procedure, does that make sense? It can go towards counseling and family-planning services.

Read a portion of this Press Release from NARAL:

The global gag rule, which former President George W. Bush imposed on his first day in office, prohibited the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) from granting family-planning funds to any overseas health center unless it agreed not to use its own, private, non-U.S. funds for abortion services or counseling. Bush imposed this rule even though federal law already prohibits the use of U.S. tax dollars for abortion services overseas.....

Keenan said President Obama's strong action on behalf of women would incur criticism from anti-choice pressure groups that are hostile to birth control.

"We fully expect anti-choice politicians to distort the facts and make this about abortion, when it's not," Keenan said. "It's unconscionable that the same people who oppose legal abortion also want to block the world's poorest women from accessing birth control and other services that reduce the need for abortion in the first place."

For the last four years, President Bush has arbitrarily withheld funding appropriated by Congress to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which provides family-planning services, prenatal care, and other primary health services in developing countries.

For more information regarding these issues, including examples of how the global gag rule has cut off women's access to birth control, please visit NARAL Pro-Choice America.

It's the word "abortion", Dmek. It's a sexy word to use and divisive at the same time. The reality is, no one is FOR abortion.

But I suspect it's a number of things that has caused this particular topic to bubble to the top and become central to a much larger debate. I think, for one, coming off the heels of a historic election, people are engaged like never before.

What a joke. What you meant to say is that in the last twenty years it's become fashionable for pro-choice politicians to ass-cover with some caveat indicating that in the purely moral sphere, of course they have reservations about this very difficult decision. Blah, blah, blah. Thomas Jefferson wasn't for slavery either. Actions speak much louder than words when it comes to things like this.